More than 15 years after the Oslo agreements, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still on-going. Though military violence has lessened compared to the levels reached in the first years of the Second Intifada, it is always ready to erupt. Besides, various non-military and symbolic forms of violence, often overlooked, are constant. Unlike for many other conflicts, analyses of the on-going conflict are seldom limited to the utility-maximizing rationalist theoretical framework. Actually, actors and observers have developed a wide set of (sometimes overlapping) explanations ranging from the plainly “realist” Israeli security concerns or Palestinian national resistance to occupation to “cultural” arguments focused on atavistic Palestinian violence or religious confrontation… However, none of such explanations gives a satisfactory and comprehensive answer to the present stalemate that is nurturing further violence. Following new paths recently trodden by unconventional IR scholars might bring additional understanding of such a “non-rationalistic” situation. One such path would be the one concerned with identities and recognition denials. Accordingly, this paper’s contention is that the Gordian knot of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of mutual recognition denial based on an unfathomable discrepancy between how each party perceives itself and is perceived by the other, to the extent that starting to recognize the other and the legitimacy of his self-images would compel each side to undergo major shifts in self-images and identity reconstruction.

Publication date

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2009

Language

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Anglais

Conference

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"Ninth international CISS Millennium Conference (International Studies Association) "Between hopes and shadows: assessing the global order. Where we have been, where we are now, where we are going"", Potsdam (du 13/06/2009 au 15/06/2009)

Aoun, Elena. Recognition denials and unending violence between Israelis and Palestinians.Ninth international CISS Millennium Conference (International Studies Association) "Between hopes and shadows: assessing the global order. Where we have been, where we are now, where we are going" (Potsdam, du 13/06/2009 au 15/06/2009).